KR20040069621A - Method for controlling a stepping motor in a refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A refrigerant distribution control method in a refrigerator is provided to maintain a pressure balance state of a low-pressure side room and a high-pressure side room in a short time by turning on/off valves by a stepping motor and controlling the flow of a refrigerant flowing into the rooms. CONSTITUTION: A refrigerant distribution control method in a refrigerator comprises steps of turning on first and second valves and determining whether first set time has passed, if the refrigerator begins drive(S300,S302,S304); turning off the second valve and determining whether second set time has passed(S306,S308); turning on a compressor and determining whether third set time has passed(S310,S312); and turning on the second valve while turning off the compressor(S314,S316).

Description

TECHNICAL FOR CONTROLLING A STEPPING MOTOR IN A REFRIGERATOR

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for controlling refrigerant distribution in a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a method for controlling refrigerant distribution in a refrigerator suitable for maintaining a pressure balance between a high pressure valve and a low pressure valve in a short time.

Refrigerators and freezers, such as air conditioners, refrigerators, kimchi refrigerators, and the like, are driving a cooling cycle to generate the cold air required inside the device. This cooling cycle generates the cool air required by the device by heat exchange between the coolant flowing in the coolant flow path connected to the condenser and the evaporator and the air.

On the other hand, in the cooling cycle for driving the compressor and the evaporator, a solenoid valve (solenoid) for opening and closing the refrigerant flow path is provided so that the refrigerant discharged from the compressor can be supplied to the evaporator.

The solenoid valve controls the flow of the refrigerant discharged from the compressor by performing an opening or closing operation under the control of the controller. In general, the solenoid valve maintains an open state when power is applied.

For example, a solenoid valve used in a kimchi refrigerator of two rooms or more forms a driving cycle as shown in FIG. 1 in a normal close type.

That is, after the solenoid valve is turned on, the compressor is turned on after a certain time, for example, 1 minute and 30 seconds, and after the delay of the predetermined time, for example, after 2 minutes and 30 seconds, the solenoid valve is turned off. It consists of a cycle that is off.

Since such a control cycle takes longer to reach the pressure equilibrium state of the high pressure solenoid valve and the low pressure side solenoid valve, the control cycle may act as a negative pressure in the cycle, thereby lowering the compressor efficiency.

That is, in the conventional refrigerant distribution control technology that performs control under a cycle condition (normalopen) of a general refrigerator using a solenoid valve, power consumption may increase, and at the same time, a problem that may adversely affect valve reliability has been raised.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, by controlling the flow of the refrigerant flowing into the room by turning on / off the valve by using a stepping motor, the low pressure side room and It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for controlling refrigerant distribution in a refrigerator to maintain a pressure equilibrium in a high pressure side room.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention for achieving this object, a refrigerator in which the first and second valves are turned on / off by a stepping motor to control the flow of refrigerant flowing from the compressor into the first and second rooms. A coolant distribution control method, comprising: turning on a first valve and a second valve when a refrigerator is started, and determining whether a first set time has elapsed; If the first set time has elapsed, turning off the second valve, and then determining whether the second set time has elapsed; If the second set time has elapsed, turning on the compressor and determining whether the third set time has elapsed; When the third set time has elapsed, the method of controlling the refrigerant distribution in the refrigerator includes turning on the second valve while turning off the compressor.

1 is a view showing a refrigerant distribution drive cycle in a typical kimchi refrigerator,

2 is a system block diagram for implementing a refrigerant distribution control method according to the present invention;

3 is a flow chart of a refrigerant distribution control process according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

<Description of the code | symbol about the principal part of drawing>

200: control unit 202: motor driving unit

204: first valve 206: second valve

208: Compressor

The above and other objects and various advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the preferred embodiments of the present invention described below with reference to the accompanying drawings by those skilled in the art.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Prior to the description, a key technical aspect of the present invention utilizes the characteristics of the stepping motor, i.e., the power is not consumed after the position has been determined, so that the valve on / off control of each room in the refrigerator and the compressor on / off By selectively performing the control to keep the pressure balance between the high pressure side and the low pressure side in an equilibrium state within a short time, it will be easy to achieve the bar for the purpose of the present invention from this technical idea.

2 is a configuration diagram of a system in a refrigerator applied to a refrigerant distribution control method according to the present invention, including a control unit 200, a motor driving unit 202, valves 204 and 206 for a first and second stepping motor, and a compressor ( 208), respectively.

As shown in FIG. 2, the compressor 208 sucks and compresses the superheated vapor evaporated in the evaporator (not shown) to generate a high temperature, high pressure superheated steam.

The control unit 200 according to the present embodiment applies a stepping motor driving control signal for distributing the refrigerant by opening or turning on the valve in response to driving the refrigerator to the motor driving unit 202 or driving the compressor 208. It serves to provide control signals.

The motor driver 208 operates the stepping motor under the control of the controller 200 to turn on and off the first and second valves 204 and 206.

At this time, the first and second valves 204 and 206 are provided on the high pressure side and the low pressure side (in the case of the two-room type) of the refrigerator, respectively, and the cooling cycle is driven by introducing the compressed refrigerant from the compressor 208. Serves to feed the evaporator side.

Hereinafter, with reference to the above-described configuration, with reference to the flowchart of Figure 3 attached to the refrigerant distribution control process in the refrigerator according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

Prior to the description of the flowchart, the embodiment of FIG. 3 illustrates a refrigerant distribution control process of a kimchi refrigerator having two rooms, and it is assumed that the same may be applied to a refrigeration and freezing apparatus having three rooms or four rooms.

First, when driving of the kimchi refrigerator is started in step S300, the control unit 200 proceeds to step S302 to turn on the first and second valves 204 and 206, and then proceeds to step S304. It is determined whether the first set time has elapsed.

As a result of the determination in step S304, if the first setting time has elapsed, the controller 200 proceeds to step S306 to turn off the second valve 206, and then proceeds to step S308 to set the second setting. Determine if time has elapsed.

As a result of the determination in step S308, if the second set time has elapsed, the controller 200 proceeds to step S310 to turn on the compressor 208, and then proceeds to step S312 to display the third set time. Determine if it has passed.

As a result of the determination in step S312, if the third set time has elapsed, the controller 200 proceeds to step S314 and step S316 to turn on the second valve 206 while turning off the compressor 208. .

Through this operation process, the low pressure side room and the high pressure side room reach an equilibrium state.

That is, even if the valves 204 and 206 of all the rooms are turned on after the compressor 208 is turned off, it is understood that the problem of power application or temperature rise generated in the solenoid valve does not appear as in the conventional art.

According to the present invention, the pressure balance between the low pressure side stepping motor valve and the high pressure side stepping motor valve can be kept in equilibrium within a short time, thereby improving the operating performance of the equipment and reducing the power consumption.

In addition, since the on / off operation of the valve is repeated so often even in a three- or four-room configuration, the ripple effect may be even greater.

As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated concretely based on the Example, this invention is not limited to this Example, Of course, various changes are possible within the range which does not deviate from the summary of the claim mentioned later.

Claims (3)

Refrigerant distribution control in a refrigerator controlling the flow of refrigerant flowing from the compressor into the first and second rooms by turning on and off the first and second valves by a stepping motor In the method, Determining whether a first set time has elapsed after turning on the first and second valves when driving of the refrigerator is started; If the first set time has elapsed, turning off the second valve and determining whether a second set time has elapsed; If the second set time has elapsed, turning on the compressor and determining whether a third set time has elapsed; And turning on the second valve while turning off the compressor when the third set time has elapsed. The method of claim 1, And the first and / or the second valve is connected to the low pressure side room and / or the high pressure side room. The method according to claim 1 or 2, And the method is a process in which the pressure balance between the low pressure side room and the high pressure side room maintains an equilibrium state.